The Showa Files
by GhostwriterGodzilla
Summary: Highly episodic, stand alone, side stories set in the Showa Godzilla universe that fill the gaps between various movies and characters. Includes adventures with Astronaut Glenn, Hideo Ogata, Goro Ibuki and more! Appearances from classic Toho Godzilla monsters such as King Ghidorah keep the heroes busy!


Caught in a daze of deja vu, Glenn watched as the surface grew closer. The gleaming browns and blues from the planet's orbit were starting to focus into the pale brown he knew from his original visit. This would be his third trip to Planet X and it came with sense of dread. It wasn't the fear of resistance, which was most assuredly waiting for him, or even the possibility of King Ghidorah blowing him out of the sky. It was-

"Glenn, are you okay?"

Fuji knew him better than anyone. It's likely he knew what was troubling Glenn, but the inquiry wasn't made for a confession. It was blurted to keep Glenn on task.

"Yeah, I'm good." Glenn flipped a switch. "Just can't believe this piece junk got us here slower than the P1."

"You heard the Doctor," Fuji replied, "Resources are limited back at home. This will probably be the last long range ship for years."

Glenn grimaced at the response. Fuji was right. Their profession was in danger after the war with Planet X. Major resources were being drained to repair the damage. This very well could be the last exploratory mission for years. Maybe decades. But this mission had to happen regardless of the troubles at home. The intent was to engage in peaceful dialogue between themselves and the Xians. Glenn glanced back at the massive weapons cache behind them. Or maybe the real goal was to make sure they were no longer a threat.

"This is the P2, do you read?" Fuji was already in contact with home. Glenn focused his attention back on his instruments. "We're ready to land. Over."

Fuji's report was cleared with militant discretion, not jubilation like their initial visit. Glenn continued to follow through with the procedures as the P2 came to a bumpy landing.

"I gotta say, I miss the P1..." Glenn groaned, unbuckling his restraints.

"Which one? The original or the replica?" Fuji grinned. The humor was lost on Glenn.

"I'll take the original Earth bucket over this _and_ that stickin' X copy!"

Glenn pushed out of his seat and began arming himself with a pistol and the newly issued rifle. In addition to an energy clip the rifle was armed with a sonic pulse that replicated Tetsuo's alarm system. Glenn thought about the kid for a moment.

"You given Tetsuo your blessing yet?" Glenn grinned. This time the humor was lost on Fuji. "Ah, see? Can't take a little ribbing?"

"Of all the people she had to fall for-" Fuji's reply was cut off.

"Your sister had to fall for the guy who saved the world! Must be a drag." Glenn laughed.

Fuji finished arming himself and lowered the lever for the elevator. He cut his eyes at Glenn without any comeback and gave him a thumbs down. Smiling, Glenn could only shake his head inside the bulky helmet.

Once the two had reached the surface of Planet X they began looking for one of the entrances. It didn't take long. Staying close to one another, both Glenn and Fuji noticed several of the ground elevators deployed and seemingly dead. They approached one only halfway out of the ground and completely inoperable.

"Do you think there's another way in?" Fuji asked.

"There's gotta' be..." Glenn replied, looking in the distance. He pointed to a large plateau with a gap in the center. "Over there, look..."

Both astronauts marched forward around some large pillars, broken and charred; they recognized the area.

"This is..." Fuji began.

"Where Godzilla and Rodan landed. Right. See that?"

Fuji looked at an opening in the plateau. It was an entrance for the saucers. However, like the elevators, it no longer looked operational.

"Think we can get in through there?" Glenn looked at a very apprehensive Fuji. Without reply they both carefully moved forward.

The climb to the saucer entrance took over an hour, but once the opening was reached the terrain was far more favorable.

"Lights." Fuji reminded and turned on a headlamp connected to his helmet. The light on his rifle switched on as well. Glenn did the same. "What do you think happened?"

Glenn shook his head. Although the tunnel was artificial pieces of it were coming apart. It was as if debris had been blown in from the outside. The astronauts maneuvered around trashed alien technology as they journeyed further into the darkness. Before long they reached a saucer bay. What few saucers were left had been badly damaged. Computers that once blinked multiple colors were silent with darkness.

"It's like they were attacked." Fuji looked at the charred debris and ruins.

"I got a bad feeling, Fuji..." Glenn aimed his rifle at the ruins of the saucer bay.

"Well at least you haven't run into her yet..." Fuji's words weren't so much to lighten the mood, but a matter of fact. When he looked over at Glenn he hoped to see some relief out of him.

Glenn's feelings were mixed. On one hand seeing one or a hundred of Namikawas would be infuriating. On the other hand it would be nice to see her face again. He couldn't decide whether he was relieved or not.

"Over here!" Glenn found an entrance way. A light gleamed at the end. He dared not go down it without Fuji's back-up. "Think it's a trap?"

Fuji squinted as he looked down the familiar corridor. He raised his rifle down it and slowly pushed forward. "You know I originally objected to being sent on a diplomatic mission like this. I thought the Doctor was just blowing smoke when he said it was because you and I had the most experience here."

"Figure they knew it wasn't going to be cake walk. That's why they sent us." Glenn replied. He wasn't bitter about the decision. In fact the thought of someone else coming in his stead sounded like a mission failure. He wasn't thrilled to be back on Planet X, but he didn't trust anyone else to survive it either.

As they entered the room with the blinking light they realized what they had been heading toward. It was the control room- Or another room just like it. The main console had a slow blinking bulb atop of it. It was emitting just enough light to illuminate the bulk of the area, albeit, dimly.

"What is it?" Glenn looked at the console.

"I don't know." Fuji rounded the table and reached for it. Just as he did a voice cracked through the air making him jump.

"Step away from the console!"

Glenn knew the voice. As his face tightened he dreaded turning around, but he slowly adjusted himself until the visor of his helmet revealed the face of a beautiful Japanese girl. Namikawa. Except she wasn't Namikawa. She wasn't even Japanese. She was simply a product of the Xian lifestyle. One he refused to be open minded about.

The female kept her gun on the two. "Both of you, drop your weapons and move over there..." she pointed to the side of the room with her pistol.

Glenn looked back at Fuji with a very cross face. Both gave each other a thumbs down and slowly placed their rifles on the floor.

"The pistols as well."

Glenn and Fuji removed their hand guns and dropped them to the floor before holding their hands up and stepping against the wall. The female Xian watched them with a certain hatred in her eyes. Glenn couldn't be sure, but if she was anything like Namikawa he could tell she blamed them for Planet X's current state.

"How could you. You destroyed it all!" she held her gun firmly at the Earthlings.

"You're the ones who attacked Earth. We were just defending ourselves." Fuji countered.

"Defending?" she shot back, "We were beaten. You crippled our military, but that wasn't enough was it?"

Glenn's brow furrowed, "What?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." she began to spiral into hysterics, "You controlled Monster Zero and annihilated everything!"

Fuji dropped his hands, "Now hold on-" He was cut off when the Xian regained composure and aimed her gun closer to him.

"Listen baby we broke your control of the monsters, but we had no way of pulling the strings ourselves." Glenn finished Fuji's sentiment, "The last we saw of King Ghidorah he left Earth."

"You're lying!" she yelled.

"No."

"You're here to make sure we're all dead."

"That's not it."

"Don't lie to me Earthling!"

"I wouldn't lie to you-" Glenn failed to catch himself as he looked away from her. Fuji did a quick take at him before looking back the Xian's confused expression.

"Then why are you here?" she asked, suspiciously.

Glenn sighed and looked at Fuji to take this one. "We came to discuss a peace treaty," Fuji replied. "We didn't expect to find you in such bad shape."

"Is that why you brought weapons?"

Glenn couldn't help but laugh. The female Xian trained her gun on him now. "Why do you laugh?"

"Because you make a fair point baby." Glenn stepped forward, intimidating her enough to back away. "Listen we don't know what happened here, but we're willing to help and right now it doesn't look like you're in a position to say no to that. Now where's the rest of your people."

The Xian refused to take her gun off Glenn. She took a long pause before replying, "I am the last."

Glenn's back stiffened in shock. He looked back at Fuji whose mouth had dropped in his helmet. "You mean you're the only one who survived?"

"Correct." She answered, coldly.

"What's you're name?" In contrast, Glenn asked with some warmth in his voice.

"X-18999."

"I'm Glenn, this is Fuji. Can you do me a favor and put that gun down so we can figure out what's goin' on?"

18999 considered it for a moment, but Glenn somehow knew she was going to lower the weapon before she even did. He knew that look. He knew how to read her. He also knew that she blamed him for the eradication of her people.

18999 didn't trust Glenn or Fuji enough to give them their weapons back, but she did let them inspect data from the post-war. Unfortunately there wasn't enough power to the computer to include visual data, only enough to infer that King Ghidorah had attacked Planet X and audio waves were giving him commands.

"I've never seen this before." Fuji was perplexed by the method of monster control, "It's less sophisticated than how the Xians did it, but equally effective."

"You think Dr. Sakurai might be able to give you any hints?" Glenn asked.

"It's possible. I'll have to bring the data to him."

"Then he won't be able to see it." 18999 interrupted behind the astronauts. "You're prisoners of Planet X. If your scientists are to inspect our data he will have to-"

"Baby look around you! You're all that's left of Planet X!" Glenn snapped, "Don't you feel anything? Aren't you the least bit rattled that you're the last of your kind?"

18999's composure was certainly shaken by Glenn's words and he could tell, but she was determined not to give in. "I- I am a citizen of Planet X. We follow orders from our machines-"

"What machines?" Glenn blurted, "That blinking light barely powering this control console?" Glenn could tell he was starting to get through to 18999. Then she violently shook her head and quickly pulled her weapon on Glenn.

"You are prisoners of Planet X! Don't bother escaping or you will be eliminated."

Glenn contorted his mouth into a scowl and joined Fuji on the floor against the control console. Fuji looked at the air meter on his glove and tapped Glenn. After taking a glance at his own meter Glenn looked back at 18999. "In two more hours you won't have any Prisoners of Planet X. Consider that for your mighty state!"

18999 glanced at the blinking light in consideration. She hadn't thought the oxygen through. Earthlings needed it. Glenn was confident he had read her up to this point, but now he had to believe he was off. This was not Namikawa. He needed to stop pretending it was Namikawa, but as the air started to thin in his helmet she was all he could think about.

He only had a few weeks with Namikawa before those stinkin' rats executed her for treason. The happy moments that replayed in his head felt more realistic the deeper he thought of them. It was like she was coming into focus. Glenn envisioned her unsnapping his helmet and pulling it off. Once it was free a wealth of air entered his lungs. It wasn't Namikawa. Nor was it a dream. 18999 had rerouted energy from the computer terminal to supply the room with oxygen.

"Thanks baby," Glenn coughed. He watched her take off Fuji's helmet as well. He was hunched over with his eyes closed. "Fuji?"

Glenn summoned a quick burst of energy and checked his friend's pulse.

"He'll live. He's unconscious." 18999 announced coldly.

Glenn sighed, "Right, it doesn't matter what condition we're in as long as you have prisoners for Planet X!" Being facetious didn't seem to affect her.

18999 knelt in front of Glenn, watching him curiously. "You said you'd never lie to me. Why did you say that?"

Glenn looked up at her, somewhat caught off guard. He glanced at the unconscious Fuji, knowing exactly what he'd be thinking if he were listening. Glenn waved his hand, "Nothing. You remind me of someone."

18999 tilted her head, "Earth women look like us as well?"

Glenn laughed, "No. No not an Earth woman."

"Then who?"

Glenn paused a moment. "She was a citizen of Planet X."

"You knew one of us?"

"Yeah," Glenn nodded. "Very well too. She sacrificed her life for me."

"Impossible. She would never go against her programming-"

"She did when she realized she wasn't a machine. She had free will, just like you."

"Free will?" 18999 looked more perplexed than enlightened, much to Glenn's chagrin.

"Yeah." Glenn nodded. "Choice."

18999 pursed her lips together, resisting the temptation of such a notion. She didn't have to try for too long. The room suddenly trembled and an explosion knocked sparks across the table. Fuji shook awake from the onslaught of debris.

"What's happening?" Fuji didn't even notice his helmet was off as he attempted to stand. Glenn helped him up while 18999 moved to the console. She rerouted power to a different portion of the panel and turned to look up at the damaged view screen. It flickered to reveal King Ghidorah firing his gravity beams at Planet X's surface.

"Earthlings must have detected the power I switched over for oxygen..." 18999 looked on, confused. "But why would they attack while you're still here?"

"Because we're not in control of it!" Glenn yelled, throwing Fuji's arm over his shoulder. "Can you shut off enough power so it won't attack?"

"It's too late! Whoever's controlling Zero knows I'm here."

Glenn grabbed Fuji's helmet and helped him clamp it on. "Then need to move to our ship!"

At that point King Ghidorah struck the P2, leaving nothing but a smoldering crater in its place.

"Ah no." Glenn muttered.

18999 considered alternatives for a moment. She looked at Glenn steadying Fuji. It was against the laws of Planet X to help enemies of the state. By all means she would have to be eliminated- Right?

"There's another way!" she announced. "Hurry!" Glenn grabbed his helmet and followed her down a dark corridor, tugging Fuji along.

"Glenn, what's happening?" Fuji mumbled.

"I'll explain if we live." Glenn locked his helmet down and looked at his O2. There wasn't much left, but he hoped it would be enough.

They arrived in the saucer bay just before the corridor collapsed from King Ghidorah's relentless attack. 18999 ran to one of the less damaged saucers. It wasn't entirely in one piece, but it was in far better condition than the other transports.

"Get on!" 18999 ushered.

Once inside the three reached the control room and sat down. Fuji and Glenn removed their helmets and waited with baited breath for 18999 to take command of the saucer. Using her brain waves the ship came to life; flickering inconsistent light in its damaged state it fumbled through the bay's exit.

"We made it!" Fuji exclaimed.

"Zero's following us!" 18999 cautioned.

King Ghidorah had indeed spotted the saucer and was on a course to intercept. Although the saucer had a head start the space monster was not about to let its target go.

"Plotting a course for Planet Zero Three." 18999 announced, focusing on the control device. Glenn and Fuji eyed each other. Earth.

The hours that went by seemed like days due to fear of King Ghidorah's gravity beams cutting their escape short. Although the monster was lagging behind them, Glenn and Fuji could hear the thunder of Ghidorah's signature attack graze by ever so often.

As Earth came into view 18999 announced their arrival in 15 minutes. Fuji and Glenn couldn't help but sweat over the fact that King Ghidorah would be coming with them.

"What are we going to do about King Ghidorah?" Glenn looked at Fuji.

"We beat him twice..." He replied with false hope.

18999 looked at both Fuji and Glenn; their faces were emblematic of the impending doom they would face. The idea settled in the pit of her stomach. It was a feeling like none other. She knew what Monster Zero was capable of. Her eyes rested on Glenn. Unfortunately the moment of pondering left the ship vulnerable.

King Ghidorah's gravity beam grazed the hull of the ship during 18999's trance. The damage sent the saucer into a dive toward the Earth. Fuji and Glenn grunted as smoke and debris hit their faces.

"Hang on!" 18999 grit her teeth, focusing on steadying the ship into Earth's atmosphere. She grasped the control panel attempting to concentrate harder with the system.

As the damaged saucer reached the planet it steadied its descent and was able to land safely. The result was far less bumpy than both Fuji and Glenn had expected, but they didn't have much time to marvel over 18999's landing skills.

The three exited the saucer and immediately looked to the sky. A golden, three headed dragon was entering the atmosphere at a great speed. There was nothing they could do about it.

"Fuji, you've got to contact the Japanese government." Glenn spoke as if he were ready for a fight.

"Right."

18999 looked at both men. They were willing to stand up to Monster Zero despite the odds. She wondered why.

"Glenn..."

Hearing his name from that voice was enough to sting him directly in the heart. He looked to the woman who had Namikawa's face.

"What did she sacrifice herself for?"

Glenn didn't understand why this conversation had to happen now. They needed to find a phone. Find authorities. Come up with a plan. Summon Mothra. Anything! Yet something clicked. He realized she wasn't asking for a tangible answer. She was searching for something beyond the rules of her dead people. He knew it was something that couldn't wait.

"Love." Glenn replied. "She wanted to experience love. There's no greater example of it than sacrifice." Feeling he had given a dutiful reply he returned his attention toward the planet destroyer.

18999 couldn't be bothered with Zero's terrifying image. Something inside her was different, curious and... rebellious. She glanced at Earth's dirt. It was lush and green, moist and full of life. Her eyes cut back at Glenn. Then, without notice, she turned and ran for the saucer's ramp.

"Wait!" Glenn ran after her in a fury. Fuji watched as the two took off. He immediately began chasing down his friend.

As 18999 flew up the ramp it was already closing. Believing he could make the gap in the saucer Glenn continued to sprint for her, but was tackled to the ground by Fuji.

"Glenn, no!" He grasped him by the waist and held him to the ground.

"What is she doing?" He yelled, as if an answer from Fuji would solve everything.

The two astronauts watched as the saucer took off and began its ascent. As King Ghidorah closed on the surface the saucer sped faster toward him. Before any of the three heads could recognize what was happening the ship blind-sided the monster and exploded on impact. A cloud of flames and smoke engulfed the three heads sending the golden monster into a momentary tailspin.

Glenn's jaw dropped at the sight. He watched as King Ghidorah whirled in pain, steadied itself in the blue sky and retreated into space. The threat was gone. And so was the last of an advanced race.

Days later Fuji and Glenn returned to Japan to give individual testimonies of the mission. Glenn sat outside of the briefing room with his hands folded in his lap. He adjusted his suit's tie as Fuji finally stepped out.

"How was it?" Glenn asked.

"Brutal, but nothing they can hold against us. Still, they're not happy about the P2."

"Yeah, well, they'll get over it." Glenn responded. Although he wasn't too keen on the fact it would be the last commissioned vessel for awhile. "What did you tell them about her?"

Fuji took a deep breath before answering. "I told them she saved us from King Ghidorah. She drove him away."

Glenn nodded, somberly.

"She wasn't Namikawa, Glenn." Fuji attempted to comfort.

"No, but she was last of her kind. And I let her get killed."

"You know Glenn," Fuji continued, "I think you did her a favor. If she hadn't saved us or stopped King Ghidorah she might have never experienced what it was like to be free of the Planet X's laws. She cleared the legacy of her people by saving all of us."

Glenn's chest rose heavily and fell deeply. He grinned. "Maybe."

Fuji smiled at his friend and pat him on the shoulder. "They're waiting for you."

As Glenn stood up he grabbed Fuji's attention once more. "Hey by the way, did Dr. Sakurai take a look at the waves controlling King Ghidorah?"

Fuji nodded, "Yeah. They were being played by an action tape coming from deep space."

"That's concerning. Do we have a source?"

"It's broad. Somewhere in the galaxy called Nebula M Space Hunter."


End file.
